#research ranting

[screaming20sproject]

Research rabbit hole day one: Mostly YouTube

It’s actually day two because I started this nonsense yesterday, but hey.

Question the first: Did they, in fact, wear underwear? Weren’t they just ya know ... flapping around?

I knew the answer to this one, which is nah bro. The majority of humans are not rectangular. We have a variety of lumps in a variety of places. Also, tennis was big, and no one likes to run around a tennis court with no boob support. OW.

Question the second: Okay so what were they wearing?

This is where things got FUN.

I watch a lot of Costube (historical costuming YouTube) so that’s where I went first. Oddly, either the search algorithm sucks (possible) or there’s not a lot out there for the 20s! Lots of “History of the decade! They wore stuff!” but not a lot of “Here’s me making a thing they wore.”

I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s too simple to make good video? Lots of people making floofy Victorian petticoats, very few slapping a couple of squares together and calling it a day.

Anyway I did end up finding two that made the same pattern: Engineering Knits and Gwen’s Shenanigans. They both made a step-in chemise/teddy pattern that was free from Mrs. Depew Vintage at the time. It no longer exists, but it’s not exactly hard to reverse engineer from the videos. (Squares. It’s squares. Love the 20s already)

Question the third: WTF is a step-in teddy?

Examination suggests that it’s an undergarment that you “step into” through the side opening rather than pulling it over your head.

Question the fourth: So does that work as a binder?

No, but it looks heckin comfortable!

Question the fifth: Then what else do you wear it with?

No fucking clue, and apparently YouTube doesn’t know either, which means it’s time for

(echoey announcer voice)

Primary Sourcesssss

[kiritheyoungblue]

I am now reasonably certain that I've been slightly traumatized by my Masters research. I keep having to look at the whole thing and I just sit there staring at my defense and cringing... oh look at this plot with the giant red X over it... oh look at the r^2 of 0.06... oh look at how these numbers were missing because I accidentally flung the sample across the room that day... hey look it's that time I messed up by one decimal point and added 10x the sodium nitrite I was supposed to... oh remember how we sat down and decided that all the data from the 2013 experiment were basically crap, which is why it was taken out of my defense... whee I proved the null hypothesis... Science. Doing it turns you into an old cynical fogey. But somehow I still love it.